Gambling

There is a lot of news lately about winning the BIG ONE. The mega-million lottery prize. I hope you enjoy this picture of Gambling Patoli and the god, Xochipilli, from Codex Magliabechiano

Library Staff Statewide Help Celebrate National Library Week in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. – During National Library Week, April 8-14, 2012 staff members from all types of libraries across the state will take a wide range of photographs of library staff members working, helping patrons, teaching, and doing all that librarians do in a given day.

Library staff members from all types of libraries are encouraged to be creative in taking photos that capture the essence of South Carolina librarianship. Winners will be recognized on the SC State Library’s web site and during the 2012 SCLA Annual Conference held October 24-26, 2012 in Columbia.

To participate in the contest, simply join the Flickr group (http://www.flickr.com/groups/nlw2012) and post photos. For detailed contest rules, visit http://www.flickr.com/groups/nlw2012/rules.

For more information, contact Dr. Curtis R. Rogers, Communications Director, 803-734-8928, crogers@statelibrary.sc.gov.

1962 recap

Some births and deaths from 1962. If you would like to know more about these people, the library suggests you try Biography in Context.

Born in 1962
Paula Abdul (singer, Am. Idol)
Trace Adkins (singer)
Tracy Austin (tennis player)
Clint Black (singer)
Jon Bon Jovi (singer)
Matthew Broderick (actor)
Jim Carrey (actor)
Sheryl Crow (singer)
Jodie Foster (actor)
MC Hammer (singer)
Evander Holyfield(boxer)
Star Jones (The View)
Demi Moore (actor)
Axl Rose (singer)
Wesley Snipes (actor)
Al Unser, Jr. (auto racing)

Died in 1962
Eleanor Roosevelt (former 1st lady)
Patrick Ewing (basketball)
Marilyn Monroe (actor)
Lucky Luciano (criminal)
Charles Laughton (actor)
Hermann Hesse (author)
William Faulkner (author)
Adolf Eichmann (Nazi war criminal)
e.e.cummings (poet)

History in Pictures (WW2)

The library subscribes to a number of databases that has information on the various wars. For example, Gale World History in Context has special topic pages for
Balkan Wars, Boer War, Cold War, Crusades, English Civil War and the Commonwealth, French Revolution, Haitian Revolution ,Hundred Years' War, Iraq War, Israeli-Arab Conflict, Korean War, Napoleonic Wars, Peloponnesian War, Punic Wars, Russian Revolution, Rwandan Genocide, Spanish Armada, Spanish Civil War, Spanish Inquisition , Thirty Years' War, Vietnam War, World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks, World War I, World War II. These topic pages can be found here.

There are also many, many other pictures and articles about war. One good example of pictures was published in The Atlantic.

Pi

Most of us know that it is the length of the circumference divided by the length of the diameter and equal to 3.141592. Do you want to see it actually calculated? Watch this video from the Films on Demand database.

Or if you don't like that kind of pi, see our World Food Cultures page.

The Universe

Do you know the definition of "universe"? According to Access Science, which the library subscribes to, "The universe comprises everything in existence, including all matter and energy, and the enormous volume which contains them. The observable universe currently spans about 2.6 × 1023 km (1.6 × 1023 mi), and contains approximately 2.4 × 1052 kg (5.2 × 1052 lb) of matter, yielding an average density equivalent to a few atoms per cubic meter. Most of the universe, then, is empty space; the matter is distributed thinly throughout, forming objects and structures at a variety of different sizes. The study of this matter and energy, and its distribution, composition, and origin, is what constitutes the sciences of astronomy and cosmology."

Do you want more information on the universe? Like when the Big Bang happened? And what planets are in our universe? Then see Access Science. You can get to that database by starting at the eReference tab of the Science and Technolgy subject page.


(X-ray image: Crab Nebula Courtesy of J. Hester (Arizona State University), NASA/CXC/SAO posted in Access Science.)

Quotes

Are you just feeling the urge to quote someone today? Maybe you just need to know who said a quote and what was the context. Why did Patrick Henry say "Give me liberty or give me death!"? What quote is Mary Kay Ash famous for? Credo offers links to the following books of quotations:

Bloomsbury Biographical Dictionary of Quotations
Bloomsbury Thematic Dictionary of Quotations
Book of Bible Quotations
Collins Dictionary of Quotations
The Elgar Dictionary of Economic Quotations
Rawson's Dictionary of American Quotations
Respectfully Quoted
Simpson's Contemporary Quotations


*Mary Kay Ash -
"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right."
NY Times 20 Oct 85

Michelangelo (1475-1564)

From the Credo blog: He was born on 6 March 1475 in the village of Caprese, near Arezzo and was the second of five sons. Michelangelo drew extensively as a child, and his father placed him under the tutelage of Ghirlandaio, a respected artist of the day. Michelangelo’s precocious talent attracted the notice of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the unofficial ruler and leading art patron of Florence, and the boy was invited to join the Medici household. His figures for the tombs in Florence’s Medici Chapel (1519-33), which he designed, are among his most accomplished creations. He devoted his last 30 years largely to the Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel, to writing poetry (he left more than 300 sonnets and madrigals), and to architecture.

More information can be found about Michelangelo via the libraries on-line resources. One of these is the Gale Virtual Reference Library, Arts and Humanities Through the Eras.

Many other resources are available at the Library's Art webpage.

COST OF LIVING IN 1962

Yearly Inflation Rate . . . 1.20%
Average Cost of New Home . . . $12,500 $232,880.00 (2009)
Average Income Per Year . . . $5,556 $ 39,423.00 (2009)
Average Monthly rent . . . $110 per month $ 675.00 (2009)
Tuition to Harvard University . . . $1,520 $ 52,650.00 (2011)
Average Cost of New Car . . . $3,125 $ 29,217.00 (2010)
Eggs per dozen . . . 32 cents
Gasoline per gallon . . . 28 cents
Factory Worker Average Take Home Pay (3 Dependents) . . . $94.87

Women's History Month

The Library's display this month highlights Women's History Month. You can explore women's contributions to history in various databases. Gale's Biography in Context is a good example. New entries highlight Anna Paquin, Whitney Houston, and Ayn Rand.

I can't use the Internet for my paper

One comment that we get weekly is "I can't use the Internet for my paper" when we show students databases. "I can only use a book." Well, today's blog concerns that topic. While there is plenty of good, reliable information available on the Internet, there is also much biased, outdated, and untrustworthy information on the web. Finding reliable sources can be difficult, because anyone can publish anything on the Internet.

However, databases are not considered "Internet" resources. The reason for this is that databases are reviewed sources. Also, articles that are in databases, while they might be written for specific databases, could also have been copied from journals or magazines.

We have a variety of databases in a variety of subject fields. See the link here.

Music subject page

The library maintains a number of specialized subject pages. One that I would like to highlight today is Music. This page has just been updated and published. It has a number of exciting features including links to actual music, videos, and scores. Please see it if that interests you.





Music Online
Recordings Database


 

This fantastic database allows you to listen to tens of thousands of audio recordings (and hundreds of thousands of searchable tracks) in all areas of music.

Click on the link above to access all recordings, or select one of the specific libraries of recordings listed below:

• Classical Music
  
  
  Recordings representing all eras and catefories of classical music. More than 6000 albums, with about 90,000 searchable tracks.
  
  


• American Song
  
  
  Hear and feel the music from America's past. Includes songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Also included are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests, and more. A special feature is a group of more than 30,000 tracks of African American songs.
   


• Contemporary World Music
  
  
  This collection delivers the sounds of all regions from every continent. Contains important genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music - Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more.
  
  


• Jazz
  
  
  The largest and most comprehensive collection of streaming jazz available online — with thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres. More than 30,000 searchable tracks.
  
  


• Smithsonian Global Sound
  
  
  Listen to the music of cultural and ethnic groups from around the world. More than 40,000 searchable tracks.